Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc. (Japan) recently announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with certain members of the board of directors of QUADRANT AG (Switzerland), the world's largest manufacturer of engineering plastic products (EPP). As per the arrangement, Aquamit B.V (Netherlands) - a company equally owned by Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc. and a Swiss group of Quadrant's founders and directors - will launch a public tender offer for all outstanding shares to the shareholders of Quadrant AG. The offer price is set at CHF 86 per share in cash, a premium of 58% compared to the share's volume-weighted average price of the last 60 trading days (VWAP) of CHF 54.50, which is the minimum offer price according to the Swiss Stock Exchange and Securities Trading Act. The main condition of the offer is for Aquamit B.V. to own at least 66.7% of all issued shares on consummation of the offer and merger clearance from the competent competition authorities of share purchases agreed before the launch of the tender offer.
Upon successful completion of the public tender offer, Mitsubishi Plastics' goal is to enter into enhanced strategic cooperation with Quadrant with the goal of advancing the
EPP business and the high performance fiber composites business by utilizing the manufacturing technology, R&D capabilities, production facilities and sales routes of QUADRANT. QUADRANT will also benefit from Mitsubishi Plastics' global manufacturing of exclusive raw materials and R&D programs. This will enable the Swiss company to better penetrate the attractive Japanese markets and other growth markets in the Asian region.
Quadrant and Mitsubishi Plastics as well as their respective predecessors have established business ties since 1966 in the form of Nippon Polypenco Ltd. (NPL), a joint venture company and Japanese market leader in EPP. After Quadrant strengthened its Japanese activities since 2005 with acquisitions in the composites and UHMW-PE markets (QPC-Japan and QEPP-Japan), strategic talks intensified about an expansion of the partnership between Quadrant and Mitsubishi Plastics. As part of a new strategic alliance between Quadrant, Mitsubishi Plastics and Aquamit B.V., the parties have agreed that Quadrant increases its ownership in NPL to 55% from 45%.
07-May-09 
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